General  Xee 

By 
General  Viscount  Wolseley 


UC-NRLF 


fl    DSl 


GIFT  OF 

THOMAS   RUTHERFORD  BACON 
MEMORIAL  LIBRARY 


General  lee 


By 

GENERAL 
VISCOUNT 
WOLSELEY 


i  f    A  \ 

Rochester 
1906 


3OO  COPIES  PRINTED 

FOR 

GEORGE  P.   HUMPHREY 

ROCHESTER 

N.  Y. 


(Beneral 


*7~*HE  history  of  the  war  between 
J-  the  Northern  and  Southern 
States  of  North  America  is  yet  to 
be  written.  General  Long's  work 
on  the  great  Confederate  general  is 
a  contribution  towards  the  history 
of  that  grand  but  unsuccessful 
struggle  by  the  Seceding  States  to 
shake  off  all  political  connection 
with  the  Union  Government.  It 
will  be  read  with  interest  as  coming 
from  the  pen  of  one  who  was  Lee's 
military  secretary,  and  its  straight 
forward,  soldier-like  style  will  com 
mend  it  to  all  readers. 

It  is  not  my  intention  to  enter 
upon  any  narrative  of  the  events 

*  "  MEMOIRS  OF  ROBERT  E.  LEE  :  His  MILI 
TARY  AND  PERSONAL  HISTORY."  By  General 
A.  L.  Long  and  General  Marcus  J.  Wright. 
London,  1886. 


284819 


General  Lee. 

which  lead  to  that  fratricidal  war. 
The  unprejudiced  outsider  will  gen 
erally  admit  the  sovereign  right, 
both  historical  and  legal,  which 
each  State  possessed  under  the 
Constitution,  to  leave  the  Union 
when  its  people  thought  fit  to  do  so. 
At  the  same  time,  of  Englishmen 
who  believe  that  "union  is  strength" 
and  who  are  themselves  determined 
that  no  dismemberment  of  their 
own  empire  shall  be  allowed,  few 
will  find  fault  with  the  men  of  the 
North  for  their  manly  determina 
tion,  come  what  might,  to  resist 
every  effort  of  their  brothers  in 
the  South  to  break  up  the  Union. 
It  was  but  natural  that  all  Ameri 
cans  should  be  proud  of  the  empire 
which  the  military  genius  of  General 
Washington  had  created,  despite 


General  Lee. 

the  efforts  of  England  to  retain  her 
colonies. 

It  is  my  wish  to  give  a  short  out 
line  of  General  Lee's  life,  and  to 
describe  him  as  I  saw  him  in  the 
autumn  of  1862,  when,  at  the  head 
of  proud  and  victorious  troops  he 
smiled  at  the  notion  of  defeat  by 
any  army  that  could  be  sent  against 
him.  I  desire  to  make  known  to 
the  reader  not  only  the  renowned 
soldier,  whom  I  believe  to  have 
been  the  greatest  of  his  age,  but  to 
give  some  insight  into  the  character 
of  one  whom  I  have  always  consid 
ered  the  most  perfect  man  I  ever 
met.  Twenty-one  years  have  passed 
since  the  great  Secession  War 
ended,  but  even  still,  angry  remem 
brances  of  it  prevent  Americans 
from  taking  an  impartial  view  of 


General  Lee. 

the  contest,  and  of  those  who  were 
the  leaders  of  it.  Outsiders  can 
best  weigh  and  determine  the  merits 
of  the  chief  actors  on  both  sides, 
but  if  in  this  attempt  to  estimate 
General  Lee's  character,  I  offend 
any  one  by  the  outspoken  expres 
sion  of  my  opinions,  I  hope  I  may 
be  forgiven.  On  one  side  I  -Can 
see,  in  the  dogged  determination  of 
the  North,  persevered  in  to  the  end 
through  years  of  recurring  failure, 
the  spirit  for  which  the  men  of 
Britain  have  always  been  remark 
able.  It  is  a  virtue  to  which  the 
United  States  owed  its  birth  in  the 
last  century,  and  its  preservation  in 
18^5.  It  is  the  quality  to  which  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race  is  most  indebted 
for  its  great  position  in  the  world. 
On  the  other  hand,  I  can  recognize 

6 


General  Lee. 

the  chivalrous  valour  of  those  gal 
lant  men  whom  Lee  led  to  victory : 
who  fought  not  only  for  fatherland 
and  in  defense  of  home,  but  for 
those  rights  most  prized  by  free 
men.  Washington's  stalwart  sol 
diers  were  styled  rebel  by  our  King 
and  his  ministers,  and  in  like  man 
ner  the  men  who  wore  the  gray 
uniform  of  the  Southern  Confeder 
acy  were  denounced  as  rebels  from 
the  banks  of  the  Potomac  to  the 
head  waters  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 
Lee's  soldiers,  well  versed  as  all 
Americans  are  in  the  history  of 
their  forefathers'  struggle  against 
King  George  the  Third,  and  believ 
ing  firmly  in  the  justice  of  their 
cause,  saw  the  same  virtue  in  one 
rebellion  that  was  to  be  found  in 
the  other.  This  was  a  point  upon 


General  Lee. 

which,  during  my  stay  in  Virginia 
in  1862,  I  found  every  Southerner 
laid  the  greatest  stress.  It  is  a 
feeling  that  as  yet  has  not  been 
fully  acknowledged  on  the  North 
ern  side. 

"  Rebellion,  foul  dishonoring  word, 
Whose  wrongful  blight  so  oft  has  stained 

The  holiest  cause  that  tongue  or  sword 
Of  mortal  ever  lost  or  gained. 

How  many  a  spirit  born  to  bless 
Hath  sunk  beneath  thy  withering  name, 

Whom  but  a  day's,  an  hour's  success, 
Had  wafted  to  eternal  fame." 

As  a  looker-on,  I  feel  that  both 
parties  in  the  war  have  so  much  to 
be  proud  of,  that  both  can  afford  to 
hear  what  impartial  Englishmen  or 
foreigners  have  to  say  about  it. 
Inflated  and  bubble  reputations 
were  acquired  during  its  progress, 


General  Lee. 

few  of  which  will  bear  the  test  of 
time.  The  idol  momentarily  set  up, 
often  for  political  reasons,  crumbles 
in  time  into  the  dust  from  which 
its  limbs  were  perhaps  originally 
moulded.  To  me,  however,  two 
figures  stand  out  in  that  history 
towering  above  all  others,  both  cast 
in  hard  metal  that  will  be  forever 
proof  against  the  belittling  efforts 
of  all  detractors.  One,  General 
Lee,  the  great  soldier ;  the  other, 
Mr.  Lincoln,  the  far-seeing  states 
man  ol  iron  will,  of  unflinching 
determination.  Each  is  a  good  rep 
resentative  of  the  genius  that  char 
acterised  his  country.  As  I  study 
the  history  of  the  Secession  War, 
these  seem  to  me  the  two  men  who 
influenced  it  most,  and  who  will  be 
recognized  as  its  greatest  heroes 


General  Lee. 

when  future  generations  of  Ameri 
can  historians  record  its  stirring 
events  with  impartiality. 

General  Lee  came  from  the  class 
of  landed  gentry  that  has  furnished 
England  at  all  times  with  her  most 
able  and  distinguished  leaders.  The 
first  of  his  family  who  went  to 
America  was  Richard  Lee,  who  in 
1641  became  Colonial  Secretary  to 
the  Governor  of  Virginia.  The 
family  settled  in  Westmoreland  ,one 
of  the  most  lovely  counties  in  that 
historic  state,  and  members  of  it 
from  time  to  time  held  high  posi 
tions  in  the  government.  Several 
of  the  family  distinguished  them 
selves  during  the  War  of  Independ 
ence,  amongst  whom  was  Henry, 
the  father  of  General  Robert  Lee. 
He  raised  a  mounted  corps  known 

JO 


General  Lee. 

as  "  Lee's  Legion,"  in  command  of 
which  he  obtained  the  reputation 
of  being  an  able  and  gallant  soldier. 
He  was  nicknamed  "  Light  Horse 
Harry."  He  was  three  times  gov 
ernor  of  his  native  state.  To  him 
is  attributed  the  authorship  of  the 
eulogy  on  General  Washington,  in 
which  occurs  the  so  often  quoted 
sentence,  "  First  in  war,  first  in 
peace,  and  first  in  the  hearts  of  his 
countrymen,"  praise  that  with  equal 
truth  might  have  been  subsequently 
applied  to  his  own  distinguished 
son. 

The  subject  of  this  slight  sketch, 
Robert  Edward  Lee,  was  born  Jan 
uary  9th,  1807,  at  the  family  place 
of  Stratford,  in  the  county  of  West 
moreland,  state  of  Virginia.  When 
only  a  few  years  old  his  parents 


General  Lee. 

moved  to  the  small  town  of  Alex 
andria,  which  is  on  the  right  bank 
of  the  Potomac  River,  nearly  oppo 
site  Washington,  but  a  little  below  it. 
He  was  a  boy  of  eleven  when  his 
father  died,  leaving  his  family 
in  straitened  circumstances.  Like 
many  other  great  commanders,  he 
was  in  consequence  brought  up  in 
comparative  poverty,  a  condition 
which  has  been  pronounced  by  the 
greatest  of  them  as  the  best  train 
ing  for  soldiers.  During  his  early 
years  he  attended  a  day-school  near 
his  home  in  Alexandria.  He  was 
thus  able  in  his  leisure  hours  to 
help  his  invalid  mother  in  all  her 
household  concerns,  and  to  afford 
her  that  watchful  care  which,  owing 
to  her  very  delicate  health,  she  so 
much  needed.  She  was  a  clever, 


General  Lee.  . 

highly-gifted  woman,  and  by  her 
fond  care  his  character  was  formed 
and  stamped  with  honest  truthful 
ness.  By  her  he  was  taught  never 
to  forget  that  he  was  well-born, 
and  that,  as  a  gentleman,  honor 
must  be  his  guiding  star  through 
life.  It  was  from  her  lips  he  learned 
his  Bible,  from  her  teaching  he 
drank  in  the  sincere  belief  in  re 
vealed  religion  which  he  never  lost. 
It  was  she  who  imbued  her  great 
son  with  an  ineradicable  belief  in 
the  efficacy  of  prayer,  and  in  the 
reality  of  God's  interposition  in  the 
every-day  affairs  of  the  true  be 
liever.  No  son  ever  returned  a 
mother's  love  with  more  heartfelt 
intensity.  She  was  his  idol,  and  he 
worshipped  her  with  the  deep- 
seated,  inborn  love  which  is  known 


General  Lee. 

only  to  the  son  in  whom  filial  affec 
tion  is  strengthened  by  respect  and 
personal  admiration  for  the  woman 
who  bore  him.  He  was  her  all  in 
all,  or,  as  she  described  it,  he  was 
both  son  and  daughter  to  her.  He 
watched  over  her  in  weary  hours  of 
pain,  and  served  her  with  all  that 
soft  tenderness  which  was  such  a 
marked  trait  in  the  character  of 
this  great,  stern  leader  of  men. 

He  seemed  to  have  been  through 
out  his  boyhood  and  early  youth 
perfect  in  disposition,  in  bearing, 
and  in  conduct — a  model  of  all 
that  was  noble,  honorable,  and 
manly.  Of  the  early  life  of  very 
few  great  men  can  this  be  said. 
Many  who  have  left  behind  them 
greatest  reputations  for  usefulness, 
in  whom  middle  age  was  a  model  of 

14 


General  Lee. 

virtue  and  perhaps  of  noble  self- 
denial,  began  their  career  in  a  whirl 
wind  of  wild  excess.  Often,  again, 
we  find  that,  like  Nero,  the  virtuous 
youth  develops  into  the  middle- 
aged  fiend,  who  leaves  behind  him 
a  name  to  be  execrated  for  all  time. 
It  would  be  difficult  to  find  in 
history  a  great  man,  be  he  soldier 
or  statesman,  with  a  character 
so  irreproachable  throughout  his 
whole  life  as  that  which  in  boyhood, 
youth,  manhood,  and  to  his  death, 
distinguished  Robert  Lee  from  all 
contemporaries. 

He  entered  the  military  academy 
of  West  Point  at  the  age  of  eighteen, 
where  he  worked  hard,  became  ad 
jutant  of  the  cadet  corps,  and  finally 
graduated  at  the  head  of  his  class. 
There  he  mastered  the  theory  of 

15 


General  Lee. 

war,  and  studied  the  campaigns  of 
the  great  masters  in  that  most 
ancient  of  sciences.  Whatever  he 
did,  even  as  a  boy,  he  did  thoroughly 
with  order  and  method.  Even  at 
this  early  age  he  was  the  model 
Christian  gentleman  in  thought, 
word  and  deed.  Careful  and  exact 
in  the  obedience  he  rendered  his 
superiors,  but  remarkable  for  that 
dignity  of  deportment  which  all 
through  his  career  struck  strangers 
with  admiring  respect. 

He  left  West  Point  when  twenty- 
two,  having  gained  its  highest 
honors,  and  at  once  obtained  a 
commission  in  the  engineers.  Two 
years  afterwards  he  married  the 
granddaughter  and  heiress  of  Mrs. 
Custis,  whose  second  husband  had 
been  General  Washington,  but  by 

16 


General  Lee. 

whom  she  left  no  children.  It  was 
a  great  match  for  a  poor  subaltern 
officer,  as  his  wife  was  heiress  to  a 
very  extensive  property  and  to  a 
large  number  of  slaves.  She  was 
clever,  very  well  educated,  and  a 
general  favorite  :  he  was  handsome, 
tall,  well  made,  with  a  graceful 
figure,  and  a  good  rider:  his  man 
ners  were  at  once  easy  and  captiva 
ting.  These  young  people  had  long 
known  one  another,  and  each  was 
the  other's  first  love.  She  brought 
with  her  as  part  of  her  fortune 
General  Washington's  beautiful 
property  of  Arlington,  situated  on 
the  picturesque  wooded  heights 
that  overhang  the  Potomac  River, 
opposite  the  Capitol  to  which  the 
great  Washington  had  given  his 
name.  In  talking  to  me  of  the 


General  Lee. 

Northern  troops,  whose  conduct 
in  Virginia  was  then  denounced  by 
every  local  paper,  no  bitter  expres 
sion  passed  his  lips,  but  tears  filled 
his  eyes  as  he  referred  to  the  de 
struction  of  his  place  that  had  been 
the  cherished  home  of  the  father 
of  the  United  States.  He  could 
forgive  their  cutting  down  his  trees, 
their  wanton  conversion  of  his 
pleasure  grounds  into  a  grave-yard  ; 
but  he  never  could  forget  their 
reckless  plunder  of  all  the  camp 
equipment  and  other  relics  of  Gen 
eral  Washington  that  Arlington 
House  contained. 

Robert  Lee  first  saw  active  ser 
vice  during  the  American  War  with 
Mexico  in  1846,  where  he  was 
wounded,  and  evinced  a  remarkable 
talent  for  war  that  brought  himself 

18 


General  Lee. 

prominently  into  notice.  He  was 
afterwards  engaged  in  operations 
against  hostile  Indians,  and  ob 
tained  the  reputation  in  his  army 
of  being  an  able  officer  of  great 
promise.  General  Scott,  then  the 
general  of  greatest  repute  in  the 
United  States,  was  especially  at 
tracted  by  the  zeal  and  soldierly 
instinct  of  the  young  captain  of 
engineers,  and  frequently  employed 
him  on  distant  expeditions  that 
required  cool  nerve,  confidence  and 
plenty  of  common  sense.  It  is  a 
curious  fact  that  throughout  the 
Mexican  War,  General  Scott,  in  his 
despatches  and  reports,  made  fre 
quent  mention  of  three  officers — 
Lee,  Beauregard  and  McClellan — 
whose  names  became  household 
words  in  America  afterwards,  dur- 

19 


General  Lee. 

ing  the  great  Southern  struggle  for 
independence.  General  Scott  had 
the  highest  opinion  of  Lee's  military 
genius,  and  did  not  hesitate  to 
ascribe  much  of  his  success  in 
Mexico  as  due  to  Lee's  "skill, 
valour,  and  undaunted  energy." 
Indeed  subsequently,  when  the  day 
came  that  these  two  men  should 
part,  each  to  take  a  different  side  in 
the  horrible  contest  before  them, 
General  Scott  is  said  to  have  urged 
Mr.  Lincoln's  Government  to  secure 
Lee  at  any  price,  alleging  he  "  would 
be  worth  fifty  thousand  men  to 
them."  His  valuable  services  were 
duly  recognized  at  Washington  by 
more  than  one  step  of  brevet  pro 
motion :  he  obtained  the  rank  of 
Colonel  and  was  given  command  of  a 
cavalry  regiment  shortly  afterwards. 

20 


General  Lee. 

I  must  now  pass  to  the  most  im 
portant  epoch  of  his  life,  when  the 
Southern  States  left  the  Union  and 
set  up  a  government  of  their  own. 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  in  1860  elected 
President  of  the  United  States  in 
the  Abolitionist  interest.  Both 
parties  were  so  angry  that  thought 
ful  men  began  to  see  war  alone 
could  end  this  bitter  dispute.  Ship 
wreck  was  before  the  vessel  of 
state,  which  George  Washington 
had  built  and  guided  with  so  much 
care  during  his  long  and  hard- 
fought  contest.  Civil  war  stared 
the  American  citizen  in  the  face, 
and  Lee's  heart  was  well  nigh 
broken  at  the  prospect.  Early  in 
1861  the  seven  Cotton  States  passed 
acts  declaring  their  withdrawal 
from  the  Union,  and  their  establish- 

21 


General  Lee, 

ment  of  an  independent  republic, 
under  the  title  of  "  The  Confederate 
States  of  America."  This  declara 
tion  was  in  reality  a  revolution : 
war  alone  could  ever  bring  all  the 
States  together. 

Lee  viewed  this  Secession  with 
horror.  Until  the  month  of  April, 
when  Virginia,  his  own  dearly- 
cherished  State,  joined  the  Confed 
eracy,  he  clung  fondly  to  the  hope 
that  the  gulf  which  separated  the 
North  from  the  South  might  yet  be 
bridged  over.  He  believed  the 
dissolution  of  the  Union  to  be  a 
dire  calamity  not  only  for  his  own 
country,  but  for  civilization  and  all 
mankind.  "  Still,"  he  said,  "  a  Union 
that  can  only  be  maintained  by 
swords  and  bayonets,  and  in  which 
strife  and  civil  war  are  to  take  the 

22 


General  Lee. 

place  of  brotherly  love  and  kind 
ness,  has  no  charm  for  me."  In 
common  with  all  Southerners  he 
firmly  believed  that  each  of  the  old 
States  had  a  legal  and  indisputable 
right  by  its  individual  constitution, 
and  by  its  act  of  union,  to  leave  at 
will  the  great  Union  into  which  it 
had  separately  entered  as  a  sover 
eign  State.  This  was  with  him  an 
article  of  faith  of  which  he  was  as 
sure  as  of  any  Divine  truths  he 
found  in  the  Bible.  This  fact  must 
be  kept  always  in  mind  by  those 
who  would  rightly  understand  his 
character,  or  the  course  he  pursued 
in  1861.  He  loved  the  Union  for 
which  his  father  and  family  in  the 
previous  century  had  fought  so 
hard  and  done  so  much.  But  he 
loved  his  own  State  still  more.  She 


General  Lee. 

was  the  Sovereign  to  whom  in  the 
first  place  he  owed  allegiance,  and 
whose  orders,  as  expressed  through 
her  legally-constituted  government, 
he  was,  he  felt,  bound  in  law,  in 
honor,  and  in  love,  to  obey  without 
doubt  or  hesitation.  This  belief 
was  the  mainspring  that  kept  the 
Southern  Confederacy,  going,  as  it 
was  also  the  corner-stone  of  its 
constitution. 

In  April,  1861,  at  Fort  Sumter, 
Charleston  Harbor,  the  first  shot 
was  fired  in  a  war  that  was  only 
ended  in'April,  1865,  by  the  surren 
der  ofy  General  Lee's  army  at  Appo- 
matox  Court  House  in  Virginia. 
In  duration  it  is  the  longest  war 
waged  since  the  great  Napoleon's 
power  was  finally  crushed  at  Water 
loo.  As  the  heroic  struggle  of  a 

24 


General  Lee. 

small  population  that  was  cut  off 
from  all  outside  help  against  a 
great,  populous  and  very  rich  Re 
public,  with  every  market  in  the 
world  open  to  it,  and  to  whom  all 
Europe  was  a  recruiting  ground, 
this  Secession  War  stands  out 
prominently  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  When,  the  vast  numbers  of 
men  put.  into  the  field  by  the  North 
ern  States,  and  the  scale  upon  which 
their  operations  were  carried  on, 
are  duly  considered,  it  must  be 
regarded  as  a  war  fully  equal  in 
magnitude  to  the  successful  inva 
sion  of  France  by  Germany  in  1870. 
If  the  mind  be  allowed  to  speculate 
on  the  course  that  events  will  take 
in  centuries  to  come,  as  they  flow 
surely  on  with  unvarying  swiftness 
to  the  ocean  of  the  unknown  future, 

25 


General  Lee. 

the  influence  which  the  result  of 
this  Confederate  War  is  bound  to 
exercise  upon  man's  future  history 
will  seem  very  great.  Think  of 
what  a  power  the  re-United  States 
will  be  in  another  century!  Of 
what  it  will  be  in  the  twenty-first 
century  of  the  Christian  era !  If,  as 
many  believe,  China  is  destined  to 
absorb  all  Asia  and  then  to  over 
run  Europe,  may  it  not  be  in  the 
possible  future  that  Armageddon, 
the  final  contest  between  heathen 
dom  and  Christianity,  maybe  fought 
out  between  China  and  North 
America?  Had  Secession  been 
victorious,  it  is  tolerably  certain 
that  the  United  States  would  have 
broken  up  still  further,  and  instead 
of  the  present  magnificent  and  Eng 
lish-speaking  empire,we  should  now 

26 


General  Lee. 

see  in  its  place  a  number  of  small 
powers  with  separate  interests. 

Most  certainly  itwasthe  existence 
of  slavery  in  the  South  that  gave 
rise  to  the  bitter  antagonism  of 
feeling  which  led  to  secession.  But 
it  was  not  to  secure  emancipation 
that  the  North  took  up  arms,  al 
though  during  the  progress  of  the 
war  Mr.  Lincoln  proclaimed  it,  for 
the  purpose  of  striking  his  enemy 
a  serious  blow.  Lee  hated  slavery, 
but,  as  he  explained  to  me,  he 
thought  it  wicked  to  give  freedom 
suddenly  to  some  millions  of  people 
who  were  incapable  of  using  it  with 
profit  to  themselves  or  the  State. 
He  assured  me  he  had  long  in 
tended  to  gradually  give  his  slaves 
their  liberty.  He  believed  the  in 
stitution  to  be  a  moral  and  political 

27 


General  Lee. 

evil,  and  more  hurtful  to  the  white 
than  to  the  black  man.  He  had  a 
strong  affection  for  the  negro,  but 
he  deprecated  any  sudden  or  violent 
interference  on  the  part  of  the 
State  between  master  and  slave. 
Nothing  would  have  induced  him 
to  fight  for  the  continuance  of 
slavery :  indeed  he  declared  that  had 
he  owned  every  slave  in  the  South, 
he  would  willingly  give  them  all  up 
if  by  so  doing  he  could  preserve 
the  Union.  He  was  opposed  to 
secession,  and  to  prevent  it  he 
would  willingly  sacrifice  everything 
except  honor  and  duty,  which  for 
bade  him  to  desert  his  State.  When 
in  April,  1861,  she  formally  and  by 
an  act  of  her  Legislature  left  the 
Union,  he  resigned  his  commission 
in  the  United  States  army  with  the 

28 


General  Lee. 

intention  of  retiring  into  private 
life.  He  endeavored  to  choose 
what  was  right.  Every  personal 
interest  bid  him  throw  in  his  lot 
with  the  Union.  His  property  lay 
so  close  to  Washington  that  it  was 
certain  to  be  destroyed  and  swept 
of  every  slave,  as  belonging  to  a 
rebel.  But  the  die  was  cast :  he 
forsook  everything  for  principle 
and  the  stern  duty  it  entailed. 
Then  came  that  final  temptation 
which  opened  out  before  him  a 
vista  of  power  and  importance 
greater  than  that  which  any  man 
since  Washington  had  held  in 
America.  General  Long's  book 
proves  beyond  all  further  doubt 
that  he  was  offered  the  post  of 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Federal 
army.  General  Scott,  his  great 

29 


General  Lee. 

friend  and  leader,  whom  he  loved 
and  respected,  then  commanding 
that  army,  used  all  his  influence  to 
persuade  him  to  throw  in  his  lot 
with  the  North,  but  to  no  purpose. 
Nothing  would  induce  him  to  have 
any  part  in  the  invasion  of  his  own 
State,  much  as  he  abhorred  the 
war  into  which  he  felt  she  was 
rushing.  His  love  of  country,  his 
unselfish  patriotism,  caused  him  to 
relinquish  home,  fortune,  a  certain 
future,  in  fact  everything  for  her 
sake. 

He  was  not,  however,  to  remain 
a  spectator  of  the  coming  conflict : 
he  was  too  well  known  to  his 
countrymen  in  Virginia  as  the 
officer  in  whom  the  Federal  army 
had  most  confidence.  The  State  of 
Virginia  appointed  him  Major-Gen- 

30 


General  Lee. 

eral  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  all 
her  military  forces.  In  open  and 
crowded  convention  he  formally  ac 
cepted  this  position,  saying,  with 
all  that  dignity  and  grace  of  man 
ner  which  distinguished  him,  that 
he  did  so  "trusting  in  Almighty 
God,  an  approving  conscience,  and 
the  aid  of  my  fellow  citizens."  The 
scene  was  most  impressive  :  there 
were  present  all  the  leading  men  of 
Virginia,  and  representatives  of  all 
the  first  families  in  a  State  where 
great  store  was  attached  to  gentle 
birth,  and  where  society  was  very 
exclusive.  General  Lee's  presence 
commanded  respect,  even  from 
strangers,  by  a  calm  self-possessed 
dignity,  the  like  of  which  I  have 
never  seen  in  other  men.  Naturally 
of  strong  passions,  he  kept  them 


General  Lee. 

under  perfect  control  by  that  iron 
and  determined  will,  of  which  his 
expression  and  his  face  gave  evi- 
evidence.  As  this  tall,  handsome 
soldier  stood  before  his  country 
men,  he  was  the  picture  of  the  ideal 
patriot,  unconscious  and  self-pos 
sessed  in  his  strength  :  he  indulged 
in  no  theatrical  display  of  feeling : 
there  was  in  his  face  and  about  him 
that  placid  resolve  which  bespoke 
great  confidence  in  self,  and  which 
in  his  case — one  knows  not  how — 
quickly  communicated  its  magnetic 
influence  to  others.  He  was  then 
just  fifty-four  years  old,  the  age  of 
Marlborough  when  he  destroyed 
the  French  army  at  Blenheim:  in 
many  ways  and  on  many  points 
these  two  great  men  much  resem 
bled  each  other.  Both  were  of  a 


General  Lee. 

dignified  and  commanding  exterior, 
eminently  handsome,  with  a  figure 
tall,  graceful  and  erect,  whilst  a 
muscular,  square-built  frame  be 
spoke  great  activity  of  body.  The 
charm  of  manner,  which  I  have 
mentioned  as  very  winning  in  Lee, 
was  possessed  in  the  very  highest 
degree  by  Marlborough.  Both,  at 
the  outset  of  their  great  careers  of 
victory,  were  regarded  as  essentially 
national  commanders.  Both  had 
married  young,  and  were  faithful 
husbands  and  devoted  fathers.  Both 
had  in  all  their  campaigns  the  same 
belief  in  an  ever-watchful  Provi 
dence,  in  whose  help  they  trusted 
implicitly,  and  for  whose  interposi 
tion  they  prayed  at  all  times.  They 
were  gifted  with  the  same  military 
instinct,  the  same  genius  for  war. 

33 


General  Lee. 

The  power  of  fascinating  those 
with  whom  they  were  associated, 
the  spell  which  they  cast  over  their 
soldiers,  who  believed  almost  super- 
stitiously  in  their  certainty  of  vic 
tory,  their  contempt  of  danger, 
their  daring  courage,  constitute  a 
parallel  that  is  difficult  to  equal 
between  any  other  two  great  men 
of  modern  times. 

From  the  first  Lee  anticipated  a 
long  and  bloody  struggle,  although 
from  the  bombastic  oratory  of  self- 
elected  politicians  and  patriots  the 
people  were  led  to  believe  that  the 
whole  business  would  be  settled  in 
a  few  weeks.  This  folly  led  to  a 
serious  evil,  namely,  the  enlistment 
of  soldiers  for  only  ninety  days. 
Lee,  who  understood  war,  pleaded 
in  favor  of  the  term  being  for  the 

34 


General  Lee. 

end  of  the  war,  but  he  pleaded  in 
vain.  To  add  to  his  military  diffi 
culties,  the  politicians  insisted  upon 
the  officers  being  elected  by  their 
men.  This  was  a  point  which,  in 
describing  to  me  the  constitution 
of  his  army,  Lee  most  deplored. 
When  war  bursts  upon  a  country 
unused  to  the  ordeal,  and  therefore 
unskilled  in  preparing  for  it,  the 
frothy  babbling  of  politicians  too 
often  forces  the  nation  into  silly 
measures  to  its  serious  injury  dur 
ing  the  ensuing  operations.  That 
no  great  military  success  can  be 
achieved  quickly  by  an  improvised 
army  is  a  lesson  that  of  all  others 
is  made  most  clear  by  the  narrative 
of  this  war  on  both  sides.  All 
through  its  earlier  phases,  the  press, 
both  Northern  and  Southern,  called 

35 


General  Lee. 

loudly,  and  oftentimes  angrily,  for 
quick  results.  It  is  this  impatience 
of  the  people,  which  the  press  is 
able  to  emphasize  so  strongly,  that 
drives  many  weak  generals  into 
immature  action.  Lee,  as  well  as 
others  at  this  time,  had  to  submit 
to  the  sneers  which  foolish  men 
circulated  widely  in  the  daily  news 
papers.  It  is  quite  certain  that 
under  the  existing  condition  of 
things  no  Fabius  would  be  tolerated 
and  that  the  far-seeing  military 
policy  which  triumphed  at  Torre 
Vedras  would  not  be  submitted  to 
by  the  English  public  of  to-day. 
Lee  was  not,  however,  a  man  whom 
any  amount  of  irresponsible  writing 
could  force  beyond  the  pace  he 
knew  to  be  most  conducive  to  ulti 
mate  success. 

36 


General  Lee. 

The  formation  of  an  army  with 
the  means  alone  at  his  disposal  was 
a  colossal  task.  Everything  had  to 
be  created  by  this  extraordinary 
man.  The  South  was  an  agricul 
tural,  not  a  manufacturing,  country, 
and  the  resources  of  foreign  lands 
were  denied  it  by  the  blockade  of 
its  ports  maintained  by  the  fleet  of 
the  United  States.  Lee  was  a 
thorough  man  of  business,  quick  in 
decision,  yet  methodical  in  all  he 
did.  He  knew  what  he  wanted.  He 
knew  what  an  army  should  be,  and 
how  it  should  be  organized,  both  in 
a  purely  military  as  well  as  an 
administrative  sense.  In  about  two 
months  he  had  created  a  little  army 
of  fifty  thousand  men,  animated  by 
a  lofty  patriotism  and  courage  that 
made  them  unconquerable  by  any 

37 


General  Lee. 

similarly  constituted  army.  In  an 
other  month,  this  army  at  Bull's 
Run  gained  a  complete  victory  over 
the  Northern  invaders,  who  were 
driven  back  across  the  Potomac 
like  herds  of  frightened  sheep.  As 
the  Federals  ran,  they  threw  away 
their  arms  and  everything,  guns, 
tents,  wagons,  etc.,  were  abandoned 
to  the  victors.  The  arms,  ammuni 
tion  and  equipment  then  taken  were 
real  godsends  to  those  engaged  in 
the  organization  of  the  Southern 
armies.  Thenceforward  a  battle 
to  the  Confederates  meant  a  new 
supply  of  everything  an  army  re 
quired.  It  may  be  truthfully  said, 
that  practically  the  Government  at 
Washington  had  to  provide  and 
pay  for  the  arms  and  equipment  of 
its  enemies  as  well  as  for  all  that  its 

33 


General  Lee. 

own  enormous  armies  required. 
The  day  I  presented  myself  in  Gen.- 
eral  Lee's  camp,  as  I  stood  at  the 
door  of  his  tent  awaiting  admission, 
I  was  amused  to  find  it  stamped  as 
belonging  to  a  colonel  of  a  New 
Jersey  regiment.  I  remarked  upon 
this  to  General  Lee,  who  laughingly 
said,  "Yes,  I  think  you  will  find 
that  all  our  tents,  guns,  and  even 
the  men's  pouches  are  similiarly 
marked  as  having  belonged  to  the 
United  States  army."  Some  time 
afterwards,  when  General  Pope  and 
his  large  invading  army  had  been 
sent  back  flying  across  the  Mary 
land  frontier,  I  overheard  this  con 
versation  between  two  Confederate 
soldiers :  "  Have  you  heard  the 
news?  Lee  has  resigned  !"  "Good 
G—  !  "  was  the  reply,  "  What  for  ?  " 

39 


General  Lee. 

"  He  has  resigned  because  he  says 
he  cannot  feed  and  supply  his  army 
any  longer,  now  that  his  commis 
sary,  General  Pope,  has  been  re 
moved."  Mr.  Lincoln  had  just 
dismissed  General  Pope,  replacing 
him  by  General  McClellan. 

The  Confederates  did  not  follow 
up  their  victory  at  Bull's  Run.  A 
rapid  and  daring  advance  would 
have  given  them  possession  of 
Washington,  their  enemy's  capitol. 
Political  considerations  at  Rich 
mond  were  allowed  to  outweigh  the 
very  evident  military  expediency 
of  reaping  a  solid  advantage  from 
this  their  first  great  success.  Often 
afterwards,  when  this  attempt  to 
allay  the  angry  feelings  of  the  North 
against  the  Act  of  Secession  had 
entirely  failed,  was  this  action  of 

40 


General  Lee. 

their  political  rulers  lamented  by 
the  Confederate  commanders. 

In  this  article  to  attempt  even  a 
sketch  of  the  subsequent  military 
operations  is  not  to  be  thought  of. 
Both  sides  fought  well,  and  both 
have  such  reason  to  be  proud  of 
their  achievements  that  they  can 
now  afford  to  hear  the  professional 
criticisms  of  their  English  friends 
in  the  same  spirit  that  we  Britishers 
have  learned  to  read  of  the  many 
defeats  inflicted  upon  our  arms  by 
General  Washington. 

What  most  strikes  the  regular 
soldier  in  these  campaigns  of  Gen 
eral  Lee  is  the  inefficient  manner  in 
which  both  he  and  his  opponents 
were  often  served  by  their  subordi 
nate  commanders,  and  how  badly 
the  staff  and  outpost  work  gener- 


General  Lee, 

ally  was  performed  on  both  sides. 
It  is  most  difficult  to  move  with  any 
effective  precision  young  armies 
constituted  as  these  were  during 
this  war. 

The  direction  and  movement  of 
large  bodies  of  newly-raised  troops, 
even  when  victorious,  is  never  easy, 
is  often  impossible.  Over  and  over 
again  was  the  South  apparently 
"within  a  stone's  throw  of  inde 
pendence,"  as  it  has  been  many 
times  remarked,  when,  from  want 
of  a  thoroughly  good  staff  to  organ 
ize  pursuit,  the  occasion  was  lost, 
and  the  enemy  allowed  to  escape. 
Lee's  combinations  to  secure  vic 
tory  were  the  conceptions  of  a 
truly  great  strategist,  and,  when 
they  had  been  effected,  his  tactics 
were  also  almost  always  everything 

42 


General  Lee. 

that  could  be  desired  up  to  the 
moment  of  victory,  but  there  his 
action  seemed  to  stop  abruptly. 
Was  ever  an  army  so  hopelessly  at 
the  mercy  of  another  as  that  of 
McClellan  when  he  began  his  re 
treat  to  Harrison's  Landing  after 
the  seven  days'  fighting  round 
Richmond?  What  commander 
could  wish  to  have  his  foe  in  a 
"  tighter  place  "  than  Burnside  was 
in  after  his  disastrous  attack  upon 
Lee  at  Fredericksburg?  Yet  in 
both  instances  the  Northern  com 
manders  got  safely  away,  and  other 
similiar  instances  could  be  men 
tioned.  The  critical  military  student 
of  this  war  who  knows  the  power 
which  regular  troops,  well-officered 
and  well-directed  by  a  thoroughly 
efficient  staff,  placed  in  the  hands 

43 


General  Lee. 

of  an  able  general,  and  who  has 
acquired  an  intimate  and  complete 
knowledge  of  what  these  two  con 
tending  American  armies  were 
really  like,  will,  I  think,  agree  that 
from  first  to  last  the  co-operation 
of  even  one  army  corps  of  regular 
troops  would  have  given  complete 
victory  to  whichever  side  it  fought 
on.  I  felt  this  when  I  visited  the 
South,  and  during  the  progress  of 
the  war  I  heard  the  same  opinion 
expressed  by  many  others  who  had 
inspected  the  contending  armies. 
I  say  this  with  no  wish  to  detract 
in  any  way  from  the  courage  or 
other  fighting  qualities  of  the 
troops  engaged.  I  yield  to  none  in 
my  admiration  of  their  warlike 
achievements;  but  I  cannot  blind 
myself  to  the  hyperbole  of  writers 

44 


General  Lee. 

who  refer  to  these  armies  as  the 
finest  that  have  ever  existed. 

Those  who  know  how  difficult  it 
is  to  supply  our  own  militia  and 
volunteer  forces  with  efficient  offi 
cers  can  appreciate  what  difficulties 
General  Lee  had  to  overcome  in 
the  formation  of  the  army  he  so 
often  led  to  victory.  He  had  about 
him  able  assistants,  who,  like  him 
self,  had  received  an  excellent  mili 
tary  education  at  West  Point.  To 
the  experienced  soldier  it  is  no 
matter  of  surprise,  but  to  the  gen 
eral  reader  it  will  be  of  interest  to 
know  that,  on  either  side  in  this 
war,  almost  every  general  whose 
name  will  be  remembered  in  the 
future  had  been  educated  at  that 
military  school,  and  had  been 
trained  in  the  old  regular  army  of 

45 


General  Lee. 

the  United  States.  In  talking  to 
me  of  all  the  Federal  generals,  Lee 
mentioned  McClellan  with  most 
respect  and  regard.  He  spoke  bit 
terly  of  none — a  remarkable  fact, 
as  at  that  time  men  on  both  sides 
were  wont  to  heap  the  most  violent 
terms  of  abuse  upon  their  respec 
tive  enemies.  He  thus  reproved  a 
clergyman  who  had  spoken  in  his 
sermon  very  bitterly  of  their 
enemies  :  "  I  have  fought  against 
the  people  of  the  North  because  I 
believed  they  were  seeking  to  wrest 
from  the  South  her  dearest  rights  ; 
but  I  have  never  cherished  towards 
them  bitter  or  vindictive  feelings, 
and  I  have  never  seen  the  day  when 
I  did  not  pray  for  them."  I  asked 
him  how  many  men  he  had  at  the 
battle  of  Antietam,  from  which  he 

46 


General  Lee. 

had  then  recently  returned.  He 
said  he  had  never  had,  during  that 
whole  day,  more  than  about  thirty 
thousand  men  in  line,  although  he 
had  behind  him  a  small  army  of 
tired  troops  and  of  shoeless  strag 
glers  who  never  came  up  during 
the  battle.  He  estimated  McClel- 
lan's  army  at  about  one  hundred 
thousand  men.  A  friend  of  mine, 
who  at  that  same  time  was  at  the 
Federal  headquarters,  there  made 
similar  inquiries.  General  McClel- 
lan's  reply  corroborated  the  cor 
rectness  of  Lee's  estimate  of  the 
Federal  numbers  at  Antietam,  but 
he  said  he  thought  the  Confederate 
army  was  a  little  stronger  than  that 
under  his  command.  I  mention 
this  because  both  these  generals 
were  most  truthful  men,  and  what- 

47 


General  Lee. 

ever  they  stated  can  be  implicitly 
relied  on.  I  also  refer  to  it  because 
the  usual  proportion  throughout 
the  war  between  the  contending 
sides  in  each  action  ranged  from 
about  twice  to  three  times  more 
Federals  than  there  were  Confeder 
ates  engaged.  With  reference  to 
the  relative  numbers  employed  on 
both  sides,  the  following  amusing 
story  was  told  to  me  at  the  time : 
A  deputation  from  some  of  the 
New  England  states  had  attended 
at  the  White  House,  and  laid  their 
business  before  the  President.  As 
they  were  leaving  Mr.  Lincoln's 
room  one  of  the  delegates  turned 
round  and  said  :  "  Mr.  President,  I 
should  very  much  like  to  know 
what  you  reckon  to  be  the  number 
of  rebels  in  arms  against  us."  Mr. 

48 


General  Lee. 

Lincoln,  without  a  moment's  hesi 
tation,  replied :  "  Sir,  I  have  the 
best  possible  reason  for  knowing 
the  number  to  be  one  million 
of  men,  for  whenever  one  of  our 
generals  engages  a  rebel  army  he 
reports  that  he  has  encountered  a 
force  twice  his  strength :  now  I 
know  we  have  half  a  million  of 
soldiers  in  the  field,  so  I  am  bound 
to  believe  the  rebels  have  twice 
that  number." 

As  a  student  of  war  I  would  fain 
linger  over  the  interesting  lessons 
to  be  learned  from  Lee's  campaigns : 
of  the  same  race  as  both  belliger- 
ants,  I  could  with  the  utmost  pleas 
ure  dwell  upon  the  many  brilliant 
feats  of  arms  on  both  sides ;  but  I 
cannot  do  so  here. 

The  end  came  at  last,  when  the 

49 


General  Lee. 

well-supplied  North,  rich  enough 
to  pay  recruits,  no  matter  where 
they  came  from,  a  bounty  of  over 
five  hundred  dollars  a  head,  tri 
umphed  over  an  exhausted  South, 
hemmed  in  on  all  sides,  and  even 
cut  off  from  all  communication 
with  the  outside  world.  The  des 
perate,  though  drawn,  battle  of 
Gettysburgh  was  the  death-knell 
of  Southern  independence;  and 
General  Sherman's  splendid  but 
almost  unopposed  march  to  the  sea 
showed  the  world  that  all  further 
resistance  on  the  part  of  the  Con 
federate  States  could  only  be  a 
profitless  waste  of  blood.  In  the 
thirty-five  days  of  fighting  near 
Richmond  which  ended  the  war  of 
1865,  General  Grant's  army  num 
bered  one  hundred  and  ninety 

50 


General  Lee. 

thousand,  that  of  Lee  fifty-one 
thousand  men.  Every  man  lost  by 
the  former  was  easily  replaced,  but 
an  exhausted  South  could  find  no 
more  soldiers.  "The  right  of  self- 
government,"  which  Washington 
won,  and  for  which  Lee  fought, 
was  no  longer  to  be  a  watchword 
to  stir  men's  blood  in  the  United 
States.  The  South  was  humbled 
and  beaten  by  its  own  flesh  and 
blood  in  the  North,  and  it  is  difficult 
to  know  which  to  admire  most,  the 
good  sense  with  which  the  result 
was  accepted  in  the  so-called  Con 
federate  States,  or  the  wise  magna 
nimity  displayed  by  the  victors. 
The  wounds  are  now  healed  on  both 
sides:  Northerners  and  Southerners 
are  now  once  more  a  united  people, 
with  a  future  before  them  to  which 


General  Lee. 

no  other  nation  can  aspire.  If  the 
English-speaking  people  of  the 
earth  cannot  all  acknowledge  the 
same  Sovereign,  they  can,  and  I  am 
sure  they  will,  at  least  combine  to 
work  in  the  interests  of  truth  and 
peace,  for  the  good  of  mankind. 
The  wise  men  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic  will  take  care  to  chase 
away  all  passing  clouds  that  may 
at  any  time  throw  even  a  shadow  of 
dispute  or  discord  between  the  two 
great  families  into  which  our  race 
is  divided. 

Like  all  men,  Lee  had  his  faults : 
like  all  the  greatest  of  generals,  he 
sometimes  made  mistakes.  His 
nature  shrank  with  such  horror 
from  the  dread  of  wounding  the 
feelings  of  others,  that  upon  occa 
sions  he  left  men  in  positions  of 

52 


General  Lee. 

responsibility  to  which  their  abili 
ties  were  not  equal.  This  softness 
of  heart,  amiable  as  that  quality 
may  be,  amounted  to  a  crime  in  the 
man  intrusted  with  the  direction  of 
public  affairs  at  critical  moments. 
Lee's  devotion  to  duty  and  great 
respect  for  obedience  seem  at  times 
to  have  made  him  too  subservient 
to  those  charged  with  the  civil 
government  of  his  country.  He 
carried  out  too  literally  the  orders 
of  those  whom  the  Confederate 
Constitution  made  his  superiors, 
although  he  must  have  known 
them  to  be  utterly  ignorant  of  the 
science  of  war.  He  appears  to 
have  forgotten  that  he  was  the 
great  Revolutionary  Chief  engaged 
in  a  great  revolutionary  war  :  that 
he  was  no  mere  leader  in  a  political 

53 


General  Lee. 

struggle  of  parties  carried  on  with 
in  the  lines  of  an  old,  well-estab 
lished  form  of  government.  It  was 
very  clear  to  many  at  the  time,  as 
it  will  be  commonly  acknowledged 
now,  that  the  South  could  only  hope 
to  win  under  the  rule  of  a  military 
dictator.  If  General  Washington 
had  had  a  Mr.  Davis  over  him, 
could  he  have  accomplished  what 
he  did  ?  It  will,  I  am  sure,  be  news 
to  many  that  General  Lee  was 
given  the  command  over  all  the 
Confederate  armies  a  month  or  two 
only  before  the  final  collapse  ;  and 
that  the  military  policy  of  the  South 
was  all  throughout  the  war  dicta 
ted  by  Mr.  Davis  as  President  of 
the  Confederate  States  !  Lee  had 
no  power  to  reward  soldiers  or  to 
promote  officers.  It  was  Mr.  Davis 

54 


General  Lee. 

who  selected  the  men  to  command 
divisions  and  armies.  Is  it  to  be 
supposed  that  Cromwell,  King  Wil 
liam  the  Third,  Washington,  or 
Napoleon  could  have  succeeded  in 
the  revolutions  with  which  their 
names  are  identified,  had  they  sub 
mitted  to  the  will  and  authority  of 
a  politician  as  Lee  did  to  Mr.  Davis  ? 
Lee  was  opposed  to  the  final 
defence  of  Richmond  that  was 
urged  upon  him  for  political,  not 
military  reasons.  It  was  a  great 
strategic  error.  General  Grant's 
large  army  of  men  was  easily  fed, 
and  its  daily  losses  easily  recruited 
from  a  near  base  ;  whereas  if  it  had 
been  drawn  far  into  the  interior 
after  the  little  army  with  which  Lee 
endeavored  to  protect  Richmond, 
its  fighting  strength  would  have 

55 


General  Lee. 

been  largely  reduced  by  the  detach 
ments  required  to  guard  a  long  line 
of  communications  through  a  hos 
tile  country.  It  is  profitless,  how 
ever,  to  speculate  upon  what  might 
have  been,  and  the  military  student 
must  take  these  campaigns  as  they 
were  carried  out.  No  fair  estimate 
of  Lee  as  a  general  can  be  made  by 
a  simple  comparison  of  what  he 
achieved  with  that  which  Napoleon, 
Wellington,  or  Von  Moltke  accomp 
lished,  unless  due  allowance  is  made 
for  the  difference  in  the  nature  of 
the  American  armies,  and  of  the 
armies  commanded  and  encountered 
by  those  great  leaders.  They  were 
at  the  head  of  perfectly  organized, 
thoroughly  trained,  and  well-dis 
ciplined  troops  ;  whilst  Lee's  sol 
diers,  though  gallant  and  daring  to 

56 


General  Lee. 

a  fault,  lacked  the  military  cohesion 
and  efficiency,  the  trained  company 
leaders,  and  the  educated  staff 
which  are  only  to  be  found  in  a 
regular  army  of  long  standing.  A 
trial  heat  between  two  jockeys 
mounted  on  untrained  horses  may 
be  interesting,  but  no  one  would 
ever  quote  the  performance  as  an 
instance  of  great  racing  speed. 

Who  shall  ever  fathom  the  depth 
of  Lee's  anguish  when  the  bitter 
end  came,  and  when,  beaten  down 
by  sheer  force  of  numbers,  and  by 
absolutely  nothing  else,  he  found 
himself  obliged  to  surrender!  The 
handful  of  starving  men  remaining 
with  him  laid  down  their  arms,  and 
the  proud  Confederacy  ceased  to 
be.  Surely  the  crushing,  madden 
ing  anguish  of  awful  sorrow  is  only 

57 


General  Lee, 

known  to  the  leader  who  has  so 
failed  to  accomplish  some  lofty, 
some  noble  aim  for  which  he  has 
long  striven  with  might  and  main, 
with  heart  and  soul — in  the  interests 
of  king  or  of  country.  A  smiling 
face,  a  cheerful  manner,  may  con 
ceal  the  sore  place  from  the  eyes, 
possibly  even  from  the  knowledge 
of  his  friends;  but  there  is  no  heal 
ing  for  such  a  wound,  which  eats 
into  the  very  heart  of  him  who  has 
once  received  it. 

General  Lee  survived  the  destruc 
tion  of  the  Confederacy  for  five 
years,  when,  at  the  age  of  sixty- 
three,  and  surrounded  by  his  family, 
life  ebbed  slowly  from  him.  Where 
else  in  history  is  a  great  man  to  be 
found  whose  whole  life  was  once 
such  blameless  record  of  duty  nobly 

58 


General  Lee. 

done?  It  was  consistent  in  all  its 
parts,  complete  in  all  its  relations. 
The  most  perfect  gentleman  of  a 
State  long  celebrated  for  its  chiv 
alry,  he  was  just,  gentle  and  gener 
ous,  and  child-like  in  the  simplicity 
of  his  character.  Never  elated  with 
success,  he  bore  reverses,  and  at 
last,  complete  overthrow,  with  dig 
nified  resignation.  Throughout 
this  long  and  cruel  struggle  his  was 
all  the  responsibility,  but  not  the 
power  that  should  have  accomp 
anied  it. 

The  fierce  light  which  beats  upon 
the  throne  is  as  that  of  a  rushlight 
in  comparison  with  the  electric 
glare  which  our  newspapers  now 
focus  upon  the  public  man  in  Lee's 
position.  His  character  has  been 
subjected  to  that  ordeal,  and  who 

59 


General  Lee, 

can  point  to  any  spot  upon  it?  His 
clear,  sound  judgment,  personal 
courage,  untiring  activity,  genius 
for  war,  and  absolute  devotion  to 
his  State  mark  him  out  as  a  public 
man,  as  a  patriot  to  be  forever 
remembered  by  all  Americans.  His 
amiability  of  disposition,  deep  sym 
pathy  with  those  in  pain  or  sorrow, 
his  love  for  children,  nice  sense  of 
personal  honor  and  genial  courtesy 
endeared  him  to  all  his  friends.  I 
shall  never  forget  his  sweet  winning 
smile,  nor  his  clear,  honest  eyes 
that  seemed  to  look  into  your  heart 
whilst  they  searched  your  brain.  I 
have  met  many  of  the  great  men  of 
my  time,  but  Lee  alone  impressed 
me  with  the  feeling  that  I  was  in 
the  presence  of  a  man  who  was  cast 
in  a  grander  mould,  and  made  of 

60 


General  Lee. 

different  and  of  finer  metal  than  all 
other  men.  He  is  stamped  upon 
my  memory  as  a  being  apart  and 
superior  to  all  others  in  every  way : 
a  man  with  whom  none  I  ever  knew, 
a  very  few  of  whom  I  have  read, 
are  worthy  to  be  classed.  I  have 
met  but  two  men  who  realize  my 
ideas  of  what  a  true  hero  should 
be  :  my  friend  Charles  Gordon  was 
one,  General  Lee  was  the  other. 

The  following  lines  seem  written 
for  him : 

"  Who  is  the  honest  man  ? 

He  who  doth  still  and  strongly  good  pur 
sue, 

To  God,  his  country  and  himself   most 

true  ; 
Who  when  he  comes  to  deal 

With  sick  folk,  women,  those  whom  pas 
sions  sway, 

Allows  for  this,  and  keeps  his  constant 
way." 


6 1 


General  Lee. 

When  all  the  angry  feelings 
roused  by  Secession  are  buried 
with  those  which  existed  when  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  was 
written,  when  Americans  can  re 
view  the  history  of  their  last  great 
rebellion  with  calm  impartiality,  I 
believe  all  will  admit  that  General 
Lee  towered  far  above  all  men  on 
either  side  in  that  struggle :  I 
believe  he  will  be  regarded  not 
only  as  the  most  prominent  figure 
of  the  Confederacy,  but  as  the  great 
American  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
whose  statue  is  well  worthy  to 
stand  on  an  equal  pedestal  with 
that  of  Washington,  and  whose 
memory  is  equally  worthy  to  be 
enshrined  in  the  hearts  of  all  his 
countrymen. 


62 


PRESS  OF 

CHARLES  MANN  PRINTING  COMPANY 
ROCHESTER,  N.  Y. 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTJ 

OVERDU1 


284819 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 


